David Morris, Byron Bay
Regarding Sue Lennox’s letter about Byron Bashing letter, I have to say I’m not familiar with her tabloid media references and journalists’ commentary therein. But I can imagine that it’s all part of a ‘silent contract’ that the media seem to have with publicity interests – tourism, business, real estate etc and this place. The odious usage of Byron as a brand name!
It always amuses me that some people, who often sneer at royalty, will coo over, or defer to, so-called celebrities, or the wretchedly labelled ‘Á-listers’. Not much of the old egalitarian Aussie society in that, is there?
I fail to see why, just because one lives in a place, one should adopt an ‘Everything in the garden’s lovely’ attitude and suspend one’s critical faculties.
It is precisely because I care about the place that I complain about the overwhelming impact of what is being foisted on this town. And how it seems to be in the rapid process of irrevocable change – and not for the better, in my opinion.
Elsewhere I have described the town as being one of the greed hubs of Australia. I still hold that opinion. Of course, change is an axiom; even in antiquity there was awareness that all is in flux. A Bermudian millionaire visiting here in the eighties told me he thought the place was ‘stagnating’. I told him years ago that he ought to see the place now (no doubt he’d approve).
I have no space to list all the ways I believe this place is being legally abused by free-booting capitalism in action. Doubtless the losses I could describe would be meaningless to many. Though I’m sure quite a few might agree. The town is simply being sold off, regardless of any consequences to the local community (such as still remains) and the ‘liveability’ of the place.
The sun shines pleasantly, the sea is blue, the spring blossoms are a picture; citrus flowers scent the air, but… I fear that all in the garden will not, in the long run, be well. (Call me Cassandra, if you will…)
And, I recall someone saying years ago that part of California’s problem was it started to believe its own publicity.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
